Polish Sausages

Polish sausages, made in Poland, have always displayed a consistent quality. Take for example the finest meat stick in the world, the Kabanosy. This pork sausage has been made the same way for a few hundred years and every person loves it and most people in Poland are familiar with the recipe. Unfortunately today, kabanosy is made from chicken, turkey, beef, or other meat combinations. Although the communist government was a step back, they did create rigid standards for making meat products and sausages and those standards were stictly enforced. This forced the state run meat industry to produce great products which were the same all over the country. There is probably no other country in the world that has created national standards for making sausages and enforced them for 50 years. The disliked sytem is long gone but it has left behind the legacy of wonderful meat products which are still made and sold in Poland. Although the sausage recipe may remain close to the original, the modern methods of production and chemicals that are used produce products that might look pretty but do not taste the same as before. The only way to experience the taste of those original sausages is to make them yourself at home.

The Official Classification of Polish Sausages

Polish sausage classification sounds very technical and is somewhat confusing. It divides sausages by the size of the minced meat. You may say that the the size of the grinder plate establishes sausage type:

homogenized

finely minced - meat particles below 5 mm (3/16")

finely minced uncooked

finely minced "wysokowydajne" - gain of the finished sausage is more than 135 % in relation to the original meat weight

medium minced - meat particles between 5-20 mm (3/16 - 3/4")

medium minced uncooked

medium minced "wysokowydajne" - gain of the finished sausage is more than 120 % in relation to the original meat weight

medium minced semi-dry

coarse minced - meat particles over 20 mm (over 3/4")

coarse minced uncooked

coarse minced

coarse minced high yield - gain of the finished sausage is more than 115 % in relation to the original meat weight.

coarse minced dry

Note to produce a high yield sausage ("wysokowydajna") which weighs much more the original weight of meat used requires the addition of water and chemicals that will hold this water inside. Note that there is no upper limit.

Almost all sausages that will belong to one of the above groups will be called by its general name Kielbasa and will be followed by its proper name, for example: Kielbasa Szynkowa, Kielbasa Wiejska, Kielbasa Serdelowa, Kielbasa Krakowska, Kielbasa Mysliwska etc.

Fresh, emulsified and special group sausages belong to short-life sausages.

Sausages in the special group are made from less noble parts of the animal like: organ meat (liver, heart, lung, brain, spleen, tripe, casings, jowls, dewlap, skins, snouts and blood). When you see the word kiszka in the name it signifies the fact that organ meats and/or blood were used as materials. Our beloved hot dogs, bologna or its american version known as boloney are made from such meats.

The special group of sausages are fully cooked (boiled) sausages which are normally not smoked. However, at your discretion liver sausages can be smoked for this characteristic smoky flavor. Some headcheeses were also smoked to extend their keeping qualities.

Then each sausage, including special group sausages, is further broken down by the permissible amount (in percent) of protein, fat, salt and water it can contain. We are not going to study Polish sausages in such a detail as this is not a meat technology book and it may create unnecessary confusion.

We would like to mention the fact that it is possible to make different types of a particular sausage not changing its original recipe but employing different manufacturing techniques. And the same sausage will have a different texture, will have a different degree of saltiness and will have different degree of preservation qualities. White Sausage and Polish Smoked Sausage (cold or hot smoked) are made up of the same ingredients but are different products. Smoked variety is cured and has nitrite added, all the rest remains the same. In everyday life people will simply drop the noun Kielbasa altogether and will ask in a store for: Szynkowa, Wiejska, Serdelowa, Krakowska, Mysliwska etc. This is all that is needed as everybody is pretty much familiar with those names hearing them around from childhood. Tthe word kielbasa (a sausage) has a little meaning if you do not follow it with the proper name of the sausage.

Most Polish sausages derive their name from:

the part of Poland where they were once originally made and (you may call it invented) and then became popular all over the country, most likely because they tasted so good and people liked them everywhere-Bydgoska Sausage, Lithuanian Sausage, Krakowska Sausage.

the name of the meat part or other ingredient that plays a dominant role in the recipe- Bacon Sausage, Garlic Sausage, Juniper Sausage.

An average person is not really aware and could not care less about this technical classification as all sausages have their own characteristic names and people know them.